


Hallmark Destcember Movies & Chill

by b0nes



Series: Here Lies Fireteam Maelstrom, Survived By The Exodus Family & Associates [4]
Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: Other, destcember challenge, this is all OCs babeyyyy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-08
Updated: 2020-12-08
Packaged: 2021-03-10 05:15:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,619
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27948932
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/b0nes/pseuds/b0nes
Summary: Done for Destcember, but unaffiliated with the Twitter/Tumblr thing. All prompts will be listed as chapters!Featuring Fireteam Maelstrom, the Exodus Family, and various things therein.
Series: Here Lies Fireteam Maelstrom, Survived By The Exodus Family & Associates [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2026865
Kudos: 2





	1. Thin Ice

**Author's Note:**

> we're starting with the second prompt because the first one turned out really messy and i'm still trying to fix it.
> 
>  **warnings for this chapter** include poorly executed communication and revenge plots, themes of major character death.

"I really don't think this is a good idea."  
“Well, it’s a good thing you’re not known for havin’ good ideas then, huh.”

Atticus Maav stood in the doorway of his friend's apartment as if to block his exit, but the Awoken Warlock’s small frame didn’t exactly fit the task. “ _Ha ha._ All I’m saying is, maybe you should think about this before you go and do something insane. Just this once.”  
Wolf-15 tossed a few more things into his backpack and turned around, annoyed. His jaw was set, green optics narrowed. "Don't fuckin' lecture me."  
"Revenge isn't what we're supposed to be about, Wolf, even as a _Hunter_ you should know that," he insisted. "You could bring the wrath of the _entire Reef_ back onto the City, this could be seen as a declaration of _war_ . Please don't do this."  
Wolf tossed his backpack blindly to Serenity who quietly transmatted the whole thing midair onto Wolf's ship in the hangar. He lifted his hand cannon to inspect it. True Prophecy felt heavy. "Uh huh... And how long have you been a Guardian again? Uldren Sov is a dead man and I'm gonna to be the one pullin' the trigger, got me? If the Awoken want blood for blood, they can take me. I don't care."  
“I do! Amelia does!” Atticus was at his wit’s end, “This is suicide, Wolf, you can’t face the Prince and his Barons alone like this.”

Wolf easily shoved the small Warlock out of the way and stepped outside, Serenity floating over his shoulder and uncharacteristically quiet. Atticus grabbed the fabric of his cloak before he got too far away. "What is this supposed to fix exactly?! Avenging his death won't bring Cayde back, Wolf, he is _dead!_ ...He's gone. And we’re _all_ mourning his death, but this isn’t right. I know how you feel, but I--"  
"No, you don't, Atticus," Wolf finally turned to him and Atticus released his hold on the Hunter’s cloak. Serenity looked away. Her Guardian leaned in close to Atticus -- so close the Warlock could see the mechanisms pull his eyes narrow and angry and the soft machine sound of it unnerved him slightly. Guardians could be a dangerous lot to cross, but Atticus had never expected to get caught in the wake of it, and especially not from someone as easy-going as Wolf-15. “Choose your next words carefully, kid, cus you might be sayin’ ‘em through a thought transmitter for the rest of your life if you’re not careful.”  
"Don't take this out on him, Wolf,” Serenity said softly, drifting back to him. “We have to go find Uldren and take care of this before we lose anyone else, and it won’t take long for Zavala to find out what you’re doing...” Her eye drifted to Atticus as she spoke, and Atticus felt a wash of shame and indigence at what the gesture implied.

As Wolf walked away, Serenity lingered and mimicked a small sigh. “I’m sorry, Atticus. I am… If we don’t make it back, tell Amelia, too.”  
Atticus swallowed hard and inhaled deeply, “Just be careful out there… Don’t let him fall too hard.”  
“I won’t.”


	2. Dearest Wish

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A time of togetherness spent alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> we love to suffer.
> 
>  **warnings for this chapter** include ptsd and the guilt of something outside of your control.

It was getting late, but Atticus was still pacing his study, book in hand, his Ghost quietly fretting over the hour. Guardian or not, even slightly unhinged magic space heathens needed their rest.  
"Atticus, it's nearly four in the morning," Ekko said, placing herself between his eyes and his book and arranging her shell into a frown. Atticus was brought out of whatever headspace he’d slipped into and he blinked slowly, then straightened his cramping back.  
"Do you mind? I'm busy..."  
"You're not. What are you reading that's got you so enthralled?" Ekko floated away when he gently waved her off and drifted around to the underside of the book, then dramatically groaned. "Alright, it's one thing to study ancient literature well into the early hours of the morning -- that I can respect -- but this is just shameful." Before Atticus could react, a transmat beam snatched the book away and placed it on a high shelf nearby. “To bed now, Mr. Bookworm.”  
“Hey--! Ekko, _rude!_ I was just getting to the good part!” Atticus crossed the room quickly, dragging a chair across the floor to climb onto. “Stealing things… You’ve spent too much time talking to Serenity, haven’t you? She never was a good influence on you, Ekko, I’ve been telling you that from the start.  _ Petty theft. _ Unbelievable.”  
"Nonsense. When did you start reading trashy bodice rippers anyway? Don't tell me Amelia got you into them, her taste is abysmal..."  
"It's not-- Ekko! It's a  _ romance _ novel, it isn't trash!" Atticus twisted around to gesture at her, nearly losing his balance in the process. When he caught himself, he turned back to the shelf. "And if you  _ must _ know, Amelia did _ not  _ get me into them, I got it from Wolf...  _ He _ got it from her. Why did I have such tall shelves installed, this is absurd… Honestly."  
"You haven't spoken to either of them in almost a year, why are you trusting their taste in books  _ now? _ " Ekko tilted where she hovered, squinting up at her Guardian. The little bell, which had replaced the plastic spider recently to commemorate the season, jingled merrily as she wobbled.  
"Don't worry about it." Atticus grabbed for his book with a frown, mumbling about losing his place as he hopped down off the chair and started leafing through pages.  
Ekko paused, then mimicked a surprised gasp, "You _do_ miss them! Atticus Maav, you soft little thing!"  
Atticus's face flushed deeply as he swatted at her again. "Knock it off, or so help me--"  
She swirled around his head with a musical laugh and perched in his hair with a hum, "You should talk to them. Certainly wouldn’t kill you to be social."  
"No," he stated firmly, waving her away from his head like she was a particularly naughty bird, "No, absolutely not. There's nothing for us to talk about anymore, it would be pointless."  
"Atticus--"  
" _ No, _ Ekko. I…” A sigh. “Look, I wish things were different, I do, but that chapter has closed. No point opening it up again."  
Ekko withered slightly. "Not like you to give up on things. Atticus, I know it's complicated, but one day you're going to wish you'd kept in touch... It's not every day you have a bond like that."  
Atticus sighed again and shook his head, "Well, it's not every day you obliterate someone's trust in you, either..."

He gave up on trying to find his page and tossed the book onto a cluttered desk that he’d been neglecting cleaning. As nice as it would be to know his old friends were still alive, he wasn’t sure he’d be able to handle the tension. Ever since Luna, things had been difficult. Facing them now, after such a long silence? Unthinkable. Atticus scrubbed at his face with his palms and grumbled as he swept his hair back and curled his fingers into it. Ekko watched him and moved to hover over an empty wax burner that perfectly cradled the bottom of her shell. “For closure, at least.”  
“They aren’t dead, Ekko.”  
“That you know of. Just send them a little message.”  
Atticus let his hands fall to his sides in defeat and shuffled over to his desk, sitting heavily in his creaky chair. “One message. That’s it.”  
“Excellent.”

* * *

Amelia-9’s day off had come and gone about as blandly as she expected it to. She’d started the morning with chores -- her apartment was fairly neglected and un-lived-in, so it didn’t take long. After that, some work around the City -- a bit of heavy lifting here, some helping old biddies across the street there, scarcely more than a casual patrol in her casual clothes to remind herself of what she fought so hard for. A walk through one of the parks brought her to a playground where she stopped and watched a group of children running around playing Crucible and she wondered why their parents let them watch something so brutal. Death held a different meaning for Light-bearers, certainly, but it was still televised slaughter, as far as Amelia was concerned. Vulgar.

When a little boy noticed her, he broke away from the group at a sprint and a bright smile pulled across his chubby face. Big black eyes looked up at her with delight. “You’re a Titan, right? I bet you are, you’re  _ really _ big!”  
Amelia laughed softly and knelt down, resting her elbows on her knees. “I am. My name is Amelia-9. What’s yours?”  
“Ario,” he said proudly, pulling at the bottom hem of his shirt. “Have you ever been to the Crucible? Me and my friends just watched it last night!”   
“I haven’t, no. I have a lot of Guardian stuff to do, so I don’t really have the time for it.”  
“Aw… You should! I bet you’d win. You’d be so awesome,” Ario said, and he reached to take her hand. She let him. “You have big hands, so I bet you could punch somebody’s head right off. Have you ever done that?”   
“Mm…” Amelia tilted her head side to side in thought, “Once or twice. Not other Guardians, though, just aliens.” Ario kept playing with her hand as his friends came up one by one. He seemed particularly interested in the hinges of her knuckles.  
“I’ve never met an Exo before. Do you have rocket launchers in your arms?” Another kid asked.  
“No, but that would be pretty cool, wouldn’t it? I’m just a regular person, like you.”  She rested her cheek on her free hand.  
“Nuh uh, you’re a Guardian!  _ And _ a robot! You’re  _ way _ cooler than a person. My mama says just one of you guys is like a whole army by yourself.”  
Amelia laughed softly, but she’d never particularly liked that comparison. It felt very  _ othering _ in a way she couldn’t quite place. She took her hand back to ruffle her fingers through Ario's hair and stand as the other kids circled around, each more excited than the last.

In among all the chatter of half a dozen little kids, a girl with dark curls squeezed through her friends, holding a card in her hands. “Miss Amelia-9, can you sign this for me?”  
Amelia tilted her head and held out her hand, and the card was placed in her fingers. A trading card…? Wow. She held it closer to read the text beneath her photo and felt the world drop out from under her.  
‘ _ Fireteam Maelstrom’s fearless Titan leader and one of few to survive the Hive Catacombs of Luna. _ ’ it said. Her Ghost materialized seconds later which made the kids to jump tracks and start asking him questions instead. A few wanted to hold him, which was an easy enough distraction. Whoever could catch him would be allowed to hold him for the rest of the day, and he stayed just out of their reach as he zipped away from Amelia.

Amelia’s breath caught in her throat and she closed her eyes, feeling panic starting to bubble through her system like a swarm of bees. An entire Hive of them. Howling and hissing and shrieking, cloaked in darkness, cursed bodies detonating and distorting her auditory processing, claws digging and scraping and peeling away the armor to reach the metal beneath, to pull her apart at the seams in a shower of sparks because death is never enough, never the final step, it has to suffer,  _ suffer--  
_ She startled at the sound of a tiny voice. The little girl who’d handed her the card, twirling a lock of hair around her finger and confused about the Guardian’s silence, tilted her head. “Miss Amelia-9?”  
“Uh-- Yes. Yes, sweetheart, of course I’ll sign it for you… I’d be happy to.” If she could stop her hand from shaking long enough, anyway. Amelia focused on her breathing as she shrugged off her backpack to retrieve a pen.  
“My big sister is a Guardian, too,” the girl said, “Well, she’s not my  _ real _ sister, but she says you and her helped my mom and dad a long time ago, and she visits us a lot, too. She says you’re her favorite Titan! And she’s an Exo, too, but she’s yellow, not green. I like your pink spot.”  
“Ah. Thank you, that’s very sweet. My friend gave me that spot a long time ago.” Much fonder memories of her old team pulled the panic down to a dull simmer and made it easier to scribble her name on the card. “Shot me in the face with a paintball gun accidentally. I almost had to get a new eye. Oh… What’s your name?”  
“Amelia!” The girl’s smile was dazzling and infectious at the same time, and Amelia-9 might have smiled herself if she could.  
“Well, Miss Amelia, I quite like your name. It’s very fitting.” Guardian Amelia offered Little Amelia her card back, and Little Amelia lit up like a wall of Dawning decorations. She ran away, shouting her thanks, back to a pair of smiling adults who waved to the Guardian before they turned to leave the park.

Meeko returned, glancing back at the group of kids currently searching the jungle gym high and low for the little light, and looked up at her with concern. “Are you okay?”   
“I think we should go home.”   
“Agreed.”  
“Maybe I should write to Atticus and Wolf-16… It’s been a long time, you know. Wouldn't be here without those two...”  
“Agreed.” Meeko said again with a nod. “Come along, then, Amelia.”

* * *

"You're wandering again."  
"Huh?" Distracted. Typical.  
Serenity looked at her guardian with a curious eye, her shell bobbing into sight. He knew the look she was giving him all too well but pretended not to notice her concern. "I dunno, you're not usually quiet for this long. Two minutes is about as far as you can get. What's on your mind, Guardian?"  
Wolf curled his fingers against his chin, elbows resting on the railing overlooking the big wide world outside of and beneath the Tower. The City was alight with evening hustle, but his green optic lights were focused on the horizon as always. He laughed softly and shrugged, "Just lettin’ the old processors out for a walk, Red, it ain’t that deep."  
Serenity's shell twirled as she bobbed to his other side with a soft hum on the edge of a mechanical chirp. "Well, you haven't even touched the snacks you got from Eva. She’ll be very disappointed with that. … Come on, Wolf, your Mr. Mystery thing doesn’t work on me, we’re neurally linked. What’s wrong?”  
Wolf-16 waved her away gently and straightened, rolling his shoulders. "Ahh, whatever. You know. Just that time of year again. Dawning’s comin’ up and I’m all tryin’ to face the lowercase ghosts of times gone by. Same old. You think Atticus and Amelia are gonna turn up this year?”  He almost sounded hopeful, but she knew he wouldn’t let himself feel it.  
"Hard to say," Serenity mused, following her Guardian's gaze out toward the distant mountains, like the answer would be there somewhere. She tried not to think about the hopeful look on his face. "Usually it's you that doesn't show up until the last possible second any time the City or the Tower is involved. You Hunters--"  
"And our wanderlust, uh huh." Wolf propped his elbows on the railing again, rolling his eyes. "Ain't my fault the tower makes my bolts rust. All the bureaucracy and the walls. Ugh, makes me itch in a major way." He shuddered to punctuate that and Serenity rolled her eye in her own way. "Don't climb this, don't teach six year olds knife tricks it's dangerous that, hey Wolf-16 Zavala wants to talk to you about the Vanguard, blah, blah, blah..."  
"You're not getting me off topic again, mister," Serenity was back at attention, scolding him gently and Wolf seemed to wither for a good second or so before he relented, resting his jaw on his palm.  
"It's just weird, that’s all. Being here, being with them... being without them, too, I mean, so much happened and all I got was a messed up head for the trouble. It's _weird._ "  
"Self-conscious? Well, that’s not like you at all. You three are heroes, you know."  
"Any old Joe Schmoe off the street who does his job is a hero as far as these people are concerned," Wolf mumbled, looking down at the City. “The old lady who makes my waffles perfectly every time I come here is a hero. What we did was just messy and stupid and no-reason dangerous. ”  
“It’s not the small picture that makes you a hero to them, it’s what you do daily to keep the City safe.”

A long silence passed between the two before Serenity gently bumped her Guardian's shoulder with her shell. "Come on. Let's go watch the kids downtown throw streamers at each other. That always cheers you up. And hey, maybe we’ll see the other two, huh?”  
“Oh, that’d just be my most biggest ultimate Dawning wish; Hang out with two more socially constipated weirdos who also don’t want to be here.”  
Serenity giggled as she flew off and Wolf followed close behind.


	3. Eye For An Eye

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> having a bad time in the club, boys.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **warnings for this chapter** include grief and revenge not working out quite like we hope.

“There’s an old pre-Golden Age saying,” Amelia-9 said softly. The dim light that reached the Tangled Shore made her armor appear almost black against a backdrop of dark blue, but she wasn’t what Wolf-15 was looking at. “An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind.”  
“I don’t need a lecture from you, too…”  
Amelia turned away from the flimsy railing that separated her from the vastness below and she watched Wolf where he sat nearby on a crate, cleaning a new and familiar hand cannon. It hurt to see him like this, but she didn’t move to touch him. He already didn’t handle vulnerability well, and she knew just being here was enough of a blessing. “I don’t mean to lecture you, Wolf. Do you feel any better after all that?”   
“Of course I do…” He ran his thumb across a white spade painted on the side of the gun in his lap and lowered his head with a soft sigh. It wasn’t sincere. A weight had settled on his shoulders that nothing was going to move, least of all a bloody rampage across the system.

Amelia sat down beside him and her Ghost brought down a lunchbox from her ship in a transmat beam. She propped her ankle on the opposite knee to rest it in her lap and open it. “It doesn’t look that way to me… When are you coming home?”  
Wolf shook his head and shrugged but didn’t say anything. His Ghost, Serenity, hovered nearby, looking about as helpless as Amelia felt, which was a feat for a little machine without a face.  
“I think Atticus is hoping I bring you back to the City. A worry wart, that one.” Amelia would be lying if she said she didn’t hope the scents of a fresh meal didn’t at least partly distract Wolf. He’d always been food motivated, but this time he didn’t so much as look up.  
“Did you come here just to impart some ancient wisdom and make small talk?” His voice sounded thick and heavy.  
It was Amelia’s turn to shrug. She removed her helmet and placed it by her foot. “I thought you might need some company. Not that your Ghost isn’t doing a good job, but sometimes another familiar face helps one feel less alone.”  
“I don’t feel alone.”  
“Good. Are you hungry?”  
Wolf said nothing, but she might have seen him glance miserably toward her lunchbox. 

Serenity floated closer to her Guardian and nestled into his hood, just at the curve of his neck. She settled down, whirring softly and tucking in as close as she could get.  
“Loss is a terrible thing,” Amelia said softly, sliding a pair of smooth little sticks from a compartment in the lid of her lunchbox, “I think for Guardians especially. Death means nothing, until it means everything, and you never expect the ones you love most to die forever.”  
Wolf exhaled a slow, trembling breath and retrieved Serenity from his hood to hold her in both hands, doubled over his lap with the weight of everything. He was trying valiantly to hold himself together.  
“Are you afraid of forgetting him?”  
Wolf was quiet for a long time, but when he spoke, his voice was small. “Sometimes…”  
One of the many joys of being an Exo. Amelia pushed some of the food around in her lunchbox, trying not to look too hard at Wolf. She knew all too well how scary a thought it was, to forget the people you know and love when your head starts to fall apart. “Tell Serenity about him. Or just yourself… Keeping a memory log isn’t a cure, but I find it to be a very good salve.”

Another long silence passed before movement caught Amelia’s attention and she looked up. Wolf had sat up and scooted over, closer to her with Serenity still held tight to his chest. He leaned heavily against her with his face turned away, hidden beneath his hood. “I feel like… Like I’m collapsing in on myself, I think. There’s all this pressure on my chest. It hurts.”   
“Grief does feel an awful lot like dying, doesn’t it…” She set her lunch aside and turned to scoop her wily Hunter into her arms. He didn’t put up any resistance. “You don’t have to come home until you’re ready, but don’t lose yourself out here…”


End file.
